A man has confessed to murdering seven-year-old Zainab in Pakistan - a long line of killings which shocked the nation.

Speaking at a press conference Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif told reporters, "Zainab's murderer has been caught. His name is Muhammad Imran. He is a 24-year-old resident of Kasur...he is a serial killer."

"He [Imran] admitted to all his crimes in a polygraph test that was conducted after his DNA matched the samples," 

"Government officials constantly struggled," he said. "These combined efforts bore fruit and got the killer arrested."

Asian Image:

Chief Minister of Pakistan's Punjab province Shahbaz Sharif, third right, addresses a news conference with Mohammed Amin Ansari, fourth right, father of a 7-year-old Zainab Ansari, who was raped and killed, in Lahore, Pakistan, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018.

Asian Image:

Zainab was kidnapped on January 4. Her body was discovered five days later at a rubbish tip. She had been raped and murdered.

Shehbaz thanked Punjab's cabinet committee, Law Minister Sanaullah, IGP Punjab, additional chief secretary home, chief secretary, and other intelligence officials including Military Intelligence (MI) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

"I am most thankful to DG Forensic Lab who profiled 1,150 DNAs to find the killer."

"I promised Zainab’s parents that my team and I will do everything in our power to catch the culprit and we delivered within 14 days."

He added, "Zainab's father wants the man to be publicly hanged but the court will decide the future course of this case." 

According to Geo News, forensics had earlier today confirmed that the DNA sample from accused Imran matches with the sample found from Zainab's body.